Numerous embodiments of methods, systems and devices for electronic data processing are known from the state of the art, in particular from WO 2005/050471 A2, the disclosures of which are hereby explicitly referenced.
Methods, data processing systems and/or data processing devices of the kind mentioned in the beginning are used within the scope of search applications or routines for instance by operating systems and/or by so-called search engines, as well as within the scope of organisation, provision and/or delivery of information.
Usually contents are machine-processed as data representing information of a data inventory, in particular in order to be placed at the disposal of users, or to serve users, as technical means for solving tasks. Data inventories in the sense of the invention are simple, universally usable, persistent data objects containing, like files and/or documents in operating systems or databases, in particular structural, content, and administrative information, as required.
In data processing systems and/or data processing devices the data inventories are usually accessible to a data processing system and/or a data processing device via at least one data source, usually a data carrier available within a data processing system or interfaceable or connectible via a communication network, for instance a hard disc or similar data recording means.
Operating systems operate with a hierarchical order of files, for instance in their so-called file system. Herein, the files are arranged as a data inventory in directories in a tree structure. Navigation in the files usually occurs along an Aristotelic logic via the names of the individual directories down to a file. Herein, the process of navigation can comprise several steps and furthermore involves the problem of an unambiguous assignment. Moreover, in operating systems, the administration of files is separated from the administration of data which are exclusively accessible via application programs accessing databases or file-based data structures, as for instance XML. Normally, the separation occurs in accordance with the technical implementation or realisation of the persistence of the respective data.
In database-supported applications, relational databases managing static connections of tables provided with data have been used hitherto. Due to the used static connections in the tables managed by search engines, modifications in the data inventories cannot be acquired at all or only in a limited manner and with a delay. The evaluation or use of the data must be determined in a foresighted manner.
Usually, search engines allow users to search data inventories only for keywords or a Boolean combination of keywords. Precise search requests, as for instance the calling of invoices or the like from a particular period of time or similar queries are not possible.
Moreover, data processing systems usually operate with a static—i.e. firmly preset—hierarchically structured menu structure providing the user with a selection of possible functions for operating the data processing system. In operating systems such as for instance MacOS X of the company Apple, so-called pop-up menus are used in addition. These are also hierarchically structured menu structures which, depending on the installed application programs, however, can be supplemented at least partly by corresponding menu items for starting or calling individual application programs and/or functionalities of the same. Apart from the supplementability of the menu structures, the latter are nevertheless statically hierarchically structured in their use. The previously existing static hierarchical structuring of menu structures in data processing systems can consequently not, or only to a limited extent, fulfil a user's preferences of use. Taking the respective context of use into account by means of the menu structures, wherein in particular those menu items are offered in a menu which make sense or are reasonable in the context of the situation or of the called contents, is not possible, in particular not due to the static hierarchical structure of the menus.
Synchronisation of data representing information in data inventories between different data processing devices jointly using the data inventories—in particular in view of the increasing dissemination of data processing devices for mobile use such as so-called PDAs (PDA: Personal Digital Assistant)—is an important part of data processing systems and is integrated into data processing systems for instance in the form of so-called PIM systems (PIM: Personal Information Management). The functionality of synchronisation, however, has previously been restricted to a purely manual selection of information to be synchronised. For instance, a user can only select by manual input which, or which part of, the contact addresses managed by the data processing system he wants to synchronise. A closer or more detailed specification with regard to a limitation of content of the information to be synchronised is not possible, in particular not as an automated process which independently adjusts to the user's requirements.